“Thanks, Sis. I’m working on it.” Sheila drove across town to her office. Glancing at the clock, she saw that she’d calculated the timing of this exchange nearly to the minute.
An hour later, she walked out of her office with satisfaction flowing through her. She tapped Enter in the app on her phone and stood there waiting.
Something was about to change. Like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, she felt as if she’d just earned her wings.I’m flying now.
I’ve spent my life chasing career goals. How did I miss that there is so much more to success?Looking back, she saw that her career had cost her a marriage, the chance to have children, and all those vacations she’d always dreamed of but never taken.My priorities are shifting.
Deep down, she yearned for something more, and maybe she’d known it all along.Maybe expanding and bringing on the team was in preparation for this new phase in my life. A chrysalis.
Nothing is tying me to Richmond.
She’d been born into city life, but she had no family still living here.
Since Natalie had moved, she’d felt disconnected. How could she judge Natalie for leaving town, when really she missed her? It wasn’t a bad decision for Natalie.Is this routine I’ve made my life really living?
She’d been on a path to this reckoning ever since getting to know Tucker and seeing how committed he was to his neighbors, how he put his life on the line for the Jacob family and helped them get through the devastation, even helping his team find them safe shelter for their family—all the things he did that were beyond the parameters of his job.
Tucker’s very spirit was built on a foundation of gratitude and giving.
I want that.
She couldn’t ignore the pull she felt toward Tucker, or the satisfaction that came from working as part of a team in a community that operated on a mission to uplift one another.
Could she leave behind her life in Richmond and follow her heart?
She stopped and turned back to look at the office building and the fancy logo on the sign in front of it.
I can try to run things from Chestnut Ridge for a few months. Worst-case scenario, I come back. No harm. No foul.She could see where those words could mean something else now. It meant she could take a chance.
The Uber pulled up to the door. “Sheila?”
“That’s me.” She climbed into the back seat, and the driver pulled off, following the route on his GPS.
It was like looking at her familiar surroundings in a whole new light, and it was exciting. She let out a long breath as she leaned back in the seat. It might just be her best Christmas ever.
A few minutes later the car entered her neighborhood. She couldn’t even name her neighbors. She wouldn’t even have to say goodbye to anyone.
“Here we are,” the Uber driver said.
“Thanks for the ride.” She got out, clicked a five-star rating for the driver, then checked her watch. She went inside and packed a suitcase, and went through her mail, most of which was junk anyway. The Christmas cards she tucked inside the top of her suitcase to take with her.I’ll put them in my room at Orene’s.
She wheeled her bag out to the garage and loaded it into the trunk of her Mercedes. She pushed the garage-door opener and backed out into the driveway. Before backing into the street, she looked at the overstated home.It’s too big for one person anyway.
“Here I go! Goodbye, house. I’ll be back, but maybe not for long, if I’m lucky.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Sheila noticed antlers protruding from both side windows of an old red pickup truck in the right-hand lane. Smiling as she pulled alongside, she noticed that the man in the front seat was dressed like Santa, white beard and all, and darn if he didn’t have a giant red ball like Rudolph’s nose on the front of that red sled.
“Merry Christmas,” she shouted, and waved as she passed him. “How fun is that?”
She started singing “Here Comes Santa Claus,” and was pleasantly surprised to find that she actually remembered all the words. It was another story when she tried to count off “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” however, hiccupping on what her true love was supposed to give to her each day, so she just made it up as she went along—and laughed when for lack of a better idea for the tenth day she sang “Ten perfectly manicured fingernails!” Tapping them on the steering wheel, she sang on, quite pleased with herself.
The Chestnut Ridge sign welcomed her back.
Passing through town it was a different situation here. Main Street was quiet, and there was a bustle of activity at the big church, where they were setting up a live nativity.
Not ready to answer a lot of questions about where’d she been, she parked on the street and walked down to Orene’s. Randy’s and Natalie’s vehicles were both parked out front.
